Wyebot

Identifying a Malfunctioning Access Point

ns-admin — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 17:40:58 +0000

Wireless networks are complex, dynamic ecosystems. Isolating a single component in order to solve problems can be incredibly difficult, especially when you consider the massive amount of traffic now being exchanged on a typical wireless network. Parsing through this volume of data to manually identify problems is impractical. This is why it can be so helpful to have an automated, proactive tool that can perform the computational analysis for you, isolating and identifying problems in seconds, rather than days.

In a public school district in Massachusetts, this is exactly the role that Wyebot’s Wireless Intelligence Platform (WIP) played. The district had a network issue and could not identify the cause. One of WIP’s captured PCAP files – files that contain the wireless packet data captured by the sensor and used to analyze network behavior – revealed an issue with an AP caused by a beta version of firmware.

In a nutshell, the update added support for the Multiple BSSID Information Element but did not take into consideration the length of the TIM element. This was the cause of the district’s network issues.

What does all that mean? Let’s break it down:

Within a WLAN there are multiple APs. Packets are identified as transmitted to/from a specific AP through the use of the basic service set identifier, or BSSID.
The Multiple BSSID Information Element describes a field that exists in the beacon frame. Beacons are sent out by the AP at regular intervals to allow devices to discover and connect to it.
TIM stands for Traffic Indication Map, which is also part of the beacon frame.
The presence of the Multiple BSSID element changes the way TIM is sent in a beacon frame, but the update did not consider the length of TIM when adding support for Multiple BSSID within the beacon frame.
This caused the network’s issues, including a buffering issue and an issue with the Partial Virtual Bitmap extending beyond its usual length.

In addition, WIP found that one of the SSIDs on the network was only being broadcast by one radio of a specific AP. The SSID is the name of the network that users see when they try to connect to a network. For example, a network might have three SSIDs: Student, Faculty, and Guest.

With WIP’s assistance, the school district knew what was causing the network issues and could proceed with a resolution. “As far as I can see, the product seems to sell itself,” the district’s network administrator commented.

The post Identifying a Malfunctioning Access Point appeared first on Wyebot.

Why CIOs Should Target AI-Based WiFi Automation Platforms

ns-admin — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 20:13:26 +0000

CIOs in all industries know one thing – they have to start actively preparing for the future, today; and right now, that means incorporating automation into the entire IT ecosystem. It’s the only way to cost-effectively and efficiently scale, support emerging technologies and a dynamic workforce, and deliver all-important business continuity.

You might ask, “Aren’t IT systems already automatic? What about smart assistants, IoT devices, and bots?” While automation isn’t absent from the IT world – especially when it comes to new devices and technologies – many infrastructure management systems still depend on manual, reactive processes. For example: problem ticketing systems. Under these systems, IT has to wait for stakeholders to report issues before they can begin troubleshooting, and, often, troubleshooting is largely a manual task.

This is time consuming and expensive. Every minute that a problem goes unreported and unresolved, operational efficiency can suffer. If the problem is intermittent – as many are – IT might have to wait days for an issue to reoccur so that they can capture the data needed to identify the root cause and provide a resolution.

For CIOs, who are prepping industries for next-generation networks that depend on speed and real-time analytics, this way of doing business is now unacceptable. Standard operating procedures have to adapt to providing proactive, automatic support. This is why AI-based WiFi automation platforms are critical.

AI-Based WiFi Automation

These platforms do exactly what you’d expect – they automate the monitoring and analysis of the entire WiFi ecosystem. Depending on the platform, this includes not only connected devices and infrastructure, but also any nearby networks or non-WiFi devices operating in the same airspace.

Not only does this automatic analysis free up IT resources for other tasks, it’s also the only way for teams to receive the real-time, up-to-date information that they need to ensure WiFi assurance. Thanks to the vast size and complexity of industry networks, it is simply no longer possible for human IT teams to monitor everything in real-time. If teams, and CIOs, want the confidence of knowing everything about the network so that they can improve operations and the end user experience, they need automation.

Here are three ways these platforms support the main business objectives of CIOs around the world.

Business Continuity

Business continuity is the primary focus for CIOs: ensuring that everything works well across the entire IT ecosystem, while also focusing on where the industry is moving and identifying future needs.

Success depends on CIOs recommending and acquiring the technology needed to meet the job requirements of all employees; meeting and exceeding security requirements; and ensuring that all technology works reliably, with an eye on achieving flawless performance.

If any part of this pillar crumbles – job-required technology, security, reliable performance – a business crumbles along with it.

To protect continuity, AI-based platforms deliver:

24/7 complete visibility: platforms don’t ever stop analyzing network behavior and performance on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrums. They give IT instant visibility into exactly what devices are connected to the network and what they are using the network for; this enables teams to know what’s happening at all times and how performance can be improved in real-time.
Proactive alerts: with AI support, platforms learn to recognize normal network behavior and will automatically provide alerts at the first sign of trouble; this enables IT to proactively respond to issues, often before stakeholders are ever affected. For the best ROI, platforms need to identify the root cause of issues and provide actionable resolutions with all alerts.
Cost-effective scalability: platforms can analyze networks of 500 devices or 5,000 without a problem.
Vendor agnostic support: if a platform is vendor agnostic, CIOs can implement it at all sites, which cuts down on training time for IT, and ensures that analytics will be continuously gathered and delivered, regardless of infrastructure changes.

Flexibility

While this was a focus pre-pandemic, all efforts in this arena have been accelerated tremendously, and there’s no reason to expect that to change. CIOs now need strategies that address a hybrid workforce, one where employees aren’t simply divided into remote and onsite, but might be onsite on Monday, remote at home on Tuesday, and remote while traveling on Friday.

It’s a new, almost living and breathing environment, one that means a lot of different things to different people; and in addition to needing the architecture and technology to support this constantly changing environment, CIOs also now lead IT organizations that are less flexible than they used to be.

While it used to be normal for IT to be able to travel onsite to troubleshoot problems and push through upgrades whenever they needed to, CIOs now can’t count on that always being an option. Instead, they need to have contingencies in place that address the new mobile enterprise and complexities of travel.

In addition to the features listed above (especially 24/7 visibility), automation platforms support flexibility by delivering easy, remote access to networks.

With this access, IT can monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize networks from any location at any time. They no longer have to spend time and money traveling onsite, even if conditions allow for it, but can run end user quality tests and resolve issues from a central location.

No one wants to tie IT optimization to the ability to be onsite. CIOs need to invest in automatic, remote platforms if they want to keep their businesses working well.

Adaptability

Adaptability goes hand in hand with flexibility, but adds an emphasis on looking towards the future.

For uninterrupted business continuity, the technological infrastructure that supports almost all business processes has to be ready – at some level – to support whatever the future holds, whether that’s the future two weeks from now or two years from now. For obvious reasons, it simply wouldn’t work if all productivity had to halt as systems were completely rebuilt every time industries faced major technological or physical changes.

To better adapt businesses for the future, CIOs have to not only study market trends, but also look back at their own performance. To be successful, they need the historical analytics offered by WiFi automation platforms.

When these platforms automatically analyze and save historical data, they provide decision makers with:

An in-depth look at long-term performance trends so that decisions can be made as to the best upgrades/updates needed to meet a business’s specific needs. This goes beyond real-time troubleshooting and instead highlights trends in areas like client utilization, noise level, and access point health that may not be apparent from isolated issue alerts.
A comprehensive look at network behavior at any time in the past, ideal for troubleshooting intermittent issues or issues that occurred when no one was onsite. With saved historical data, the network ecosystem is mystery free.

Intentionally Preparing

As companies continue to embrace the billion dollar markets of emerging technologies, they must make the same investments in infrastructure and analytics platforms.

This might be an easy shift for your business, or it might take more work, but it’s always necessary. If you’d like more information – or a free trial – talk to us about how the Wireless Intelligence Platform delivers:

90% faster Mean-Times-to-Resolution
70% fewer WiFi problem tickets
80% fewer remote site visits

The post Why CIOs Should Target AI-Based WiFi Automation Platforms appeared first on Wyebot.

Automatically, Proactively Prepare Your WiFi Network for the Holiday and Giving Season

ns-admin — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 16:56:33 +0000

The holiday season is officially upon us. That means many businesses and organizations are gearing up for their busy season – a time of increased site visits and product movement. For sustained success, they require assurance that their WiFi networks will work as needed, when needed – no questions asked. This is because most critical business operations depend on the WiFi. If it’s unreliable, productivity and operational efficiency take a serious hit.

With networks consisting of thousands of connected devices, apps, and data packets, optimizing the WiFi is no simple task. IT professionals must have eyes on everything if they are to identify issues in real-time and solve them as quickly as possible. This is a task that isn’t possible without the help of WiFi automation platforms.

Why WiFi automation?

These platforms support IT by:

Monitoring the entire WiFi ecosystem,
Proactively identifying issues before end users are affected, and
Automatically alerting IT to any problems while supplying actionable solutions for fast resolutions.

They change WiFi optimization from a slow, complicated, manual, and reactive process to one that is fast, simple, automatic, and proactive.

To ensure that your network is ready for hundreds or thousands of online orders and online donations a day, let a WiFi automation platform handle the following tasks:

Proactively test the shopping/donating experience

Your holiday campaigns will see limited success if you don’t make sure that the shopping/donating experience is issue-free. Schedule end user quality tests to run automatically and frequently so that your IT team always has an in-depth understanding of exactly what end users are experiencing.

If a test fails for any reason, IT should receive a real-time alert that contains the failure, the reason for the failure (identified root cause), and actionable resolutions. This gives teams what they need to resolve problems before end users are affected.

Keep inventory updated in real-time

This season is often the season of rush orders. It’s imperative that you know the exact state of your inventory minute-to-minute so that you can give customers and employees the most accurate information possible.

These up-to-date insights and communications often rely on apps and IoT monitoring devices, both of which depend on the WiFi. The network therefore needs to be reliable, available, and high-performing 24/7. Any downtime or interference can mean the difference between record holiday sales and dissatisfied customers.

With a platform automatically alerting IT to issues and providing actionable resolutions, companies can rest assured that all end users have the information they need when they need it.

Actively and automatically ensure network security

The last thing you ever want is a security breach, and that goes double for the holiday season. Not only can a breach have serious, immediate repercussions for customers and employees, it can also affect your bottom line and reputation for months to come. Make sure that an automation platform is regularly checking firewalls, servers, and switches. If anything out of the ordinary happens, you want to know immediately. That means real-time monitoring and automatic alerts are necessary.

Monitor and optimize remote sites

Many sites don’t have a full-time IT presence. When those sites experience network issues, there can be a costly delay in resolution as IT must travel to the site before they can identify the root cause of the issue and resolve it. During the holiday and giving season, every second counts, which makes avoiding these delays critical.

Automation platforms provide an answer by giving IT remote access to the network. The entire network can be reviewed at all times, and issues can be identified and resolved from any location.

Prepare for next year

The platform needs to analyze and save all WiFi network analytics, not only during the 2021 holiday season but also throughout the year. This historical data gives you the insights you need to understand exactly what your network was asked to support and how it performed. This makes it easier for decision makers to determine how to best upgrade/update the network for the future.

Choose the right platform

The Wireless Intelligence Platform is best-in-class, award winning, and vendor agnostic. It saves companies and IT professionals time, energy, and money by delivering:

90% faster Mean-Times-to-Resolution
70% fewer WiFi problem tickets
80% fewer remote site visits

Schedule a demo or free trial today and see what WIP can do for you.

The post Automatically, Proactively Prepare Your WiFi Network for the Holiday and Giving Season appeared first on Wyebot.

Supporting Retail with Problem-Free WiFi

ns-admin — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 16:20:00 +0000

While we’ve entered one of the busiest times of the year for retail, the truth is that retail organizations always have to be prepared to support high customer volume and dynamic environments. Unlike offices that generally know how many employees will be in a building at any time, retail sites can quickly jump from twenty customers to two hundred, and then back again dozens of times a day. No matter how many customers and employees are onsite, the store must always promote a welcoming, helpful environment. Its ability to do so depends largely on the reliability of its WiFi network.

Why is a WiFi network important?

At first glance a retail store might not seem like a WiFi-dependent site, but that would be a mistake. WiFi is used by employees and customers in a number of ways, including:

To support mobile point-of-sale (POS) devices
Inventory management
Communication
Coupon access
Store app access
Supporting devices that return behavioral data analytics

If the WiFi network is unreliable, it can make employee tasks difficult, if not impossible, and frustrate customers as well. It’s in a store’s best interest to prevent this scenario.

WiFi network challenges

What can retail organizations do to ensure WiFi assurance? They need to address these common challenges:

Plan for complete coverage for strong connectivity

Stores need a network designed specifically for them in order to avoid dead spots and dropped connections. The design must take into consideration building materials, furniture, storage spaces, and nearby stores – all of which are potential sources of interference.

The network design should be reviewed after any major changes – such as a store redesign.

Make the best capacity decisions possible

It’s difficult to plan capacity in retail sites because people will be in and out in unknown numbers all day long. For this reason, we recommend that stores plan their network around the assumed maximum capacity.

Organizations should also be as specific as possible about what the network needs to support. This includes the types and numbers of devices (both those used by employees and customers); and how the network will be used (for example, how data-intensive will apps be?)

Secure the network

With so many people hopping on and off the network, security is critical. Organizations should have a dedicated guest network for all customers. This network shouldn’t allow access to any confidential information. Stores can further protect information by dedicating another network to IoT devices, as many of these devices aren’t WPA2 or WPA3 capable (common WiFi security protocols).

How to automatically assure WiFi network reliability

How can stores easily and cost-effectively address connectivity, capacity, and security? With WiFi automation platforms.

We’ve moved past the days where networks could be easily, manually monitored. These days, with thousands of data packets sent a second, countless connected devices, and near-constant movement from devices and end-users, IT teams need the support of automated platforms. These platforms provide the 24/7 analytics that are necessary if an organization wants to guarantee network optimization. Here’s how they return time, energy, and money to retail organizations and IT professionals:

Automatic, Proactive Identification of WiFi Performance Problems

WiFi automation platforms provide a switch from manual, reactive troubleshooting to automatic, proactive resolutions. The platform keeps eyes on the WiFi network at all times, which allows it to alert IT to issues as soon as they occur. These proactive alerts will always be better than reactive ones because they allow retail sites to solve problems before end users are affected. This not only keeps customers happy, but ensures smooth operational efficiency and productivity from all employees.

It also means that stores have greater access to behavioral data analytics – the faster problems are reported, the quicker they can be resolved, and the fewer analytics that will be missed due to network issues.

For the best ROI, the platform should not only alert IT to the issue, but also identify the problem’s root cause and suggest actionable resolutions. This makes it possible for the network to return to an optimized state in a fraction of the time.

Complete Visibility

The only way to know the health and performance of the entire network is with complete visibility. This needs to include backend and frontend infrastructure, all connected devices, network applications, and any non-WiFi devices operating in the same airspace (like Bluetooth devices). It should also include device capabilities, which will come in handy when upgrade decisions are made. For example, if an organization wants to upgrade to the latest WiFi-standard, they need to know how many devices will also have to be upgraded and how many are already capable of connecting to new infrastructure.

This complete visibility means that IT can see at a glance if something isn’t quite right, not to mention it allows stores to proactively review coverage and network design at any time. Data that isn’t captured is data that can’t be analyzed – which means there are issues that can go unseen and unresolved until huge problems develop. Avoid this with WiFi automation platforms.

Remote Capabilities

Not all stores have an IT professional onsite at all times. This can mean frustrating and costly delays when it comes to issue resolution – but not with a remote-capable platform.

With remote access, IT teams can solve problems and review network behavior at any time and from any location. This significantly reduces the Mean-Time-to-Resolution.

Historical Data

The historical data provided by some WiFi automation platforms is critically useful in a number of ways, including:

It allows IT to review past network and device behavior – especially useful for resolving intermittent problems.
It supports cost-efficient budget and network capacity planning by providing decision makers with details on long-term performance trends. This allows administrators to see exactly what upgrades/updates the network needs, and what it doesn’t, to best support future productivity and optimization.

Selecting a WiFi automation platform

The award-winning, vendor agnostic Wireless Intelligence Platform is AI-powered and delivers:

90% faster Mean-Times-to-Resolution
80% fewer remote site visits
70% fewer WiFi problem tickets

The post Supporting Retail with Problem-Free WiFi appeared first on Wyebot.

Test

ns-admin — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 14:42:25 +0000

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